Dr. Eric Cole - Accidental CIA Hacker To Fortune 500 Security Advisory To Entrepreneur

Getting Into Infosec

Dr. Eric Cole is an accomplished cybersecurity hacker and executive advisor. His career has been a mix of sixth-sense chance encounters and wisdom/foresight of the future. His uncanny ability to see the opportunity in cybersecurity combined with the wisdom to listen to those smarter than him is why he is where he is today. His interview is chock full of poignant advice and tips.

Dr. Eric Cole also has a creative side to him: he's a musician. He was a French horn player before and now, he's a drummer. He's known as the Tommy Lee of Cybersecurity.

Eric Cole's Quick List of Advice

• Always be respectful, Don't be an A**Hole to other people… but don't give a crap what other people say or think because we're unique and different. If you're an entrepreneur in cybersecurity, they're not gonna get ya.
• Listen to people that are smarter than you and have made the mistakes before you make them.
• Life will force you to repeat lessons until you learn them.
• The biggest gap is in the monitoring, detection, and analyst side.

Quotes

• "It's all about looking at calculated risk, understanding [the] pros and cons, and taking chances."
• "You've done the same thing six times in a row, and it doesn't work. What makes you think if you do it a seventh time [that] it's actually going to work?"
• "Try different things."
• "Have advisory board members for your life."
• "If the best professionals in the world have coaches, why shouldn't we?"
• "If people are not listening to your advice, 99% of the time, it's because you didn't answer the right question."
• "Smart people know the right answer. Brilliant people ask the right question."
• "Good cybersecurity people solve problems. Great cybersecurity people solve the right problems."
• "Don't overlook the obvious."
• "It's never a lack of resources, but a lack of resourcefulness."

Getting Into Infosec

Other episodes, transcripts, a career guide to Getting Into Infosec:
https://gettingintoinfosec.com/

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